Elephant dung tops the lots at circus sale

The price of elephant manure is unknown and the demand for two-headed calves rarely tested but Gerry Cottle, entrepreneur and former circus owner, has decided to clear out his back yard regardless of such uncertainties.

The stuffed, eight-legged lamb lay unused, a bed of nails which was once the centrepiece of a circus act was growing rustier and clowns' masks which delighted children at Butlin's holiday camps in the 1950s were gathering dust.

Mr Cottle knew that something had to be done and on Sunday the relics of his 25 years in circuses and fairgrounds will be auctioned at his winter quarters at Addlestone Moor, Surrey.

The list of lots includes ten tons of elephant manure which has been maturing nicely on a farm since the animals were sold off three years ago and which, Mr Cottle says, should produce plants guaranteed to take any horticultural show by storm.

The two-headed calves and other freak items such as a multi-horned ram's head created by taxidermists in the 19th century to shock circus-goers were left by Spanish clowns.

A big top which can hold 1,800 people, tiered seating for 1,000, 250 circus costumes, various lion and elephant props, and a flying-chairs fairground ride will also be for sale at the auction run by the Antique Amusement Company.

Steve Hunt, the auctioneer, said yesterday: "Gerry approached me at an auction of fairground memorabilia we conducted in March with the idea for a sale at his yard. He said the place was getting overrun with spare bits of various shows from the past few years."

Mr Cottle, who last year handed over the running of his circus to his three daughters, said: "It was getting out of hand, we could find less and less space to work in and nowhere to put anything over the winter. Something had to be done."

"I'll be sad to see some of it go. Some of the props are the ones the girls learned on but you can get better made ones now and it all took up a lot of valuable room."

Neither he nor Mr Hunt has any idea what the lots will fetch. The allure of an elephant howdah at a sale near the M25 motorway is not easy to predict.